Alternate Hosting
by TwinEnigma
Summary: Nine tales, one for each member of the Rookie Nine, each one a host of the Kyuubi. Oh the differences the choice of jinchuuriki makes.
1. Tail One: Shino

_**Alternate Hosting**_

**By TwinEnigma**

_Warnings:_ AU, Follows timeline.

_Disclaimer:_ I do not own Naruto or its characters nor do I make profit from the writing of this.

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**Tail One:**

Shino didn't understand why he had to be careful with his chakra at first. He knew, somehow, that it had to do with the fact his chakra wasn't quite the same as everyone else's and it had an effect on the bugs he played host to. It was worrisome, a little, and he didn't like not knowing _why_.

His parents knew why, but they always said, "When you're older."

He suspected the adults in the village knew, too, by the way they tried not to look at him.

It hurt his parents, he could see it. They didn't like the looks and they'd always pull him closer, as though a threat he couldn't see surrounded them.

His chakra resisted him at times, surging forward in leaps that would disorient and overwhelm his bugs, driving them into a frenzied state or frying them alive. It took years of extra training and careful cultivation of the survivors to allow him to use them as he was supposed to. Even then, he didn't understand why this happened and it hurt so bad each time.

Finally, Mizuki-sensei had taken pity on him after graduation and offered to explain everything to him in secret, at an old storehouse.

Shino arrived to find the class clown, Naruto, trying to read a scroll of forbidden jutsu. Naruto was as bewildered as he was, having been told to bring the scroll and learn something on it as part of his graduation test.

When Mizuki-sensei arrived, his words were not what either boy expected, but they explained so, so much and so very little: "You are the monster fox, a killer. And Naruto, as the legacy of the fourth, has every right to want to kill you, monster."

In his worst nightmares, he could not have fathomed that this would be the thing his parents had kept from him all this time. Was he really human? Was he the real Shino or just an illusion of a person created by the fox? All this time, had the fox been killing his bugs on purpose?

His answers came to him not in words, but in actions.

Mizuki-sensei took advantage of their shock to attack, flinging his large shuriken at Naruto and the scroll.

Shino leapt in front of Naruto without thinking, taking the brunt of the attack himself, and yelled at him to run for help.

A monster would not do that.

Monsters wouldn't even think about it.

Yeah, he definitely wasn't a monster.

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AN: It was interesting deciding how to handle Shino as the host of Kyuubi. I figured it wouldn't do well with the bugs.

Each of the drabbles in this story focuses on a single member of the Rookie Nine as host and goes in order of birth (save for Naruto, who is placed out of that order - you'll see why). The drabbles also go in time order.

This one covers at the Mizuki incident.


	2. Tail Two: Sakura

_**Alternate Hosting**_

**By TwinEnigma**

_Warnings:_ AU

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**Tail Two:**

Sakura wasn't very confident – she'd never been – but she was gifted with extraordinary intelligence and she'd developed a pretty keen sense of observation over the years. It wasn't hard to do when people made a habit of ignoring her, their eyes sliding away as soon as they saw her. So, bit by bit, over the years, she tried to reason out the _why_ of this strange behavior.

It always came back to a single day – the day the Kyuubi died and the day she was born. Truly, it had been an unlucky day to be born, she concluded, but the mere coincidence of being born upon the same day the beast died could hardly be a rational reason behind this willful avoidance.

Her parents said it was nothing and told her to ignore it as best she could. Many villagers were still grieving those lost that day and, to them, a child that was born in the rubble represented a reminder of the loss they could never fill.

Sakura wanted to believe them, she did. It almost made sense, too, but there was always something bothering her about it all, something that didn't sit right.

It wasn't until Wave, when the alien red chakra boiled up from under her skin as she clutched desperately to the senbon-riddled limp forms of her teammates and Kakashi-sensei uttered _Kyuubi _that she _knew_ it had been no coincidence.

She could feel that strange, alien, burning chakra hissing though her veins, as though a stopper somewhere had been removed. This was Kyuubi and the part of her that wanted to know how this was possible was drowned in the deluge of fear, anger and that burning red chakra.

Those bastards who hurt her boys – they'd _pay_. And as the world bled red with the fox's power, she roared her pain to the heavens.

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AN: Sakura is smart - she'd figure out something's off. And without Kyuubi, Naruto would have been knocked out by Haku as well.


	3. Tail Three: Chouji

_**Alternate Hosting**_

**By TwinEnigma**

_Warnings:_ AU

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**Tail Three:**

Chouji liked food. Food came in an endless variety of styles and combinations. It could be formed and shaped into beautiful works of art that were pleasing to both the palate and the eye. It often had layers of flavoring, from the robust first taste, to the subtle undertones that lingered long after.

People, on the other hand, were not among his favorites. They judged easily and it tended to make them both ugly and unpleasant. Many of the children in the Academy had judged him harshly for his weight and seemingly excessive consumption of food. But, as Shikamaru was fond of pointing out, they didn't know about the Akimichi and why they were built the way they were.

It was the other stares that bothered him, the ones adults gave him when they thought he wasn't looking, and the way stores seemed to be out of candy if he was on his own. His parents didn't like it when he mentioned it and, eventually, he'd found it was easier to stick to the family shops, avoiding the discomfort of telling them about it altogether.

He had a few friends, here and there. He'd known Shikamaru and Ino forever and they were somewhere between friends and siblings or as near as they could be without actually being related. Shino didn't like being bothered much – he was kind of a lot like Shikamaru like that – but he didn't mind hanging out with them and watching clouds. Sasuke, when he was lonely and brave enough, would sometimes creep into the picture. He was always distant, but he seemed to appreciate that Chouji simply accepted him as he was and didn't try to drag him into things, like some of their louder classmates were fond of doing. Kiba and Naruto both were loud and goofy, preferring to rough-house and play games. They were fun, though, and didn't mind when Chouji tagged along. They were real into the idea of 'the more, the merrier' when it came to mischief. He didn't know many of the girls though, but he'd always assured Ino that her friends were his as well and she'd appreciated it in her own way.

It was because he had so few friends that he hung onto them with the same ferociousness he normally reserved for that last precious barbeque crisp. He'd fight for each and every one of them, because they were his friends and he would never abandon them, not even when they were being stupid.

So, when his team came across Team Seven being beaten by Sound-nin in the Forest of Death, it came as no surprise that he charged in to help.

The red chakra, though... _that_ certainly was unexpected.

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AN: Chouji was harder to write as the Kyuubi host. He's always struck me as someone who's very aware of his friends and not so much of other, less important things.


	4. Tail Four: Kiba

_**Alternate Hosting**_

**By TwinEnigma**

_Warnings:_ AU

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**Tail Four:**

Kiba was a simple kind of guy. He liked simple things. He liked rough-housing, goofing off with the guys, sleeping in class and playing with Akamaru.

He didn't like Kyuubi. The fox was ten kinds of complicated and had an annoying habit of making things harder than they had to be.

Well, sort of, at any rate.

It wasn't like using the fox on the most rudimentary level was any different than his clan's techniques. He knew how to handle enhanced senses and didn't find anything odd about moving like a canine in the slightest. The only massive difference was the chakra. Caustic and unforgiving, the fox's chakra could make him a hell of a lot stronger and heal him at insane speeds, sure, but it completely screwed with his ability to work with Akamaru safely.

That would not do.

Akamaru was his buddy. They were like brothers or as close as a boy and his nin-dog could be to it. Long before this whole Kyuubi thing got dropped on his shoulders, he'd promised that he and Akamaru were a team and he'd meant it. Just cause there was a huge stupid not-so-dead fox in his stomach now didn't mean things were going to change completely. They'd have to be a little more careful from here on out, but they were still a team.

So, no matter what, even if he and Akamaru might lose in the elimination matches, he wouldn't drag the fox out. They'd do this together or not at all.

And with the way he was grinning, Kiba'd be damned if Naruto didn't have something up his sleeve.

He gave the blond boy a matching grin and dropped down into the arena with Akamaru by his side. "This'll be fun."

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AN: Kiba... well. You can pretty much guess what Naruto's going to do to him.


	5. Tail Five: Sasuke

_**Alternate Hosting**_

**By TwinEnigma**

_Warnings:_ AU, violence

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**Tail Five:**

"Why?"

It was a question that has haunted Sasuke ever since that bloody night. Oh, he'd remembered the answer he was given – he'd never be able to forget it, not with it staring him in the face every time he looked in the mirror and saw those whiskers – and he'd convinced himself it had to be true, since the alternative was too horrible and twisted to contemplate. But still the question lingered, right there with all the anger, pain and ruins of his heart that his brother had left behind. He poured everything into his training over the last few years. It kept him from losing himself in the wake of his family's utter annihilation and that burning, maddening question his brother left behind.

Team Seven was really the first concerted effort at forced socialization he'd had in years. He'd hated it, resented his relatively happy-go-lucky, clueless teammates, and doubted the ability of his sensei to teach his way out of a paper bag. Even before the massacre, he'd never been very social and being forced into it now was like shoving his face in dog crap and telling him it was roses.

His team eventually began to grow on him, like a fungus or an aggressive tumor of some kind. They were reliable, for the most part, and, oddly enough, he was slowly coming to get used to them. Hell, he might even have started to like them. They were rather persistent and very hard to ignore.

Then they ran into Orochimaru in the Forest of Death and every little illusion he'd been building about growing in strength with his team shattered like glass. Orochimaru shut him and the fox down with a single seal, leaving Sasuke insensate and Naruto – stupid, stupid, stupid Naruto – nearly died taking the next attack that was meant for him.

The nightmares came back after that, only now his teammates were lying alongside the bodies of his family members, cruelly battered and broken while his brother stood over them, bloody sword in hand.

A few weeks later, Kakashi was hospitalized, apparently having managed to stall Itachi at the village border, and it was like Sasuke's nightmare had come to vivid, horrific life. Kakashi was strong – over half his records were blacked out, an indication of ANBU service – and he'd given Zabuza a run for his money even with the severe handicap of having to protect the three of them and their civilian client. When Kakashi ran into Itachi, he had three other jounin with him, no one handicapping his ability to fight, and it was all they could do to stall them long enough to escape.

Itachi had come to collect the Kyuubi, that's what Kakashi had said.

Sasuke gritted his teeth as he peered around the corner of the inn and saw the black cloaks with the red clouds. Naruto and Sakura would probably never forgive him for going alone. They'd have wanted to come. But he wasn't going to let his brother kill them, not for that _thing_. He rather be killed than lose another precious person to that _monster_ his brother had become.

The wall exploded near his head as a giant sword smashed through it and Sasuke bolted out into the open, already calling on the red chakra. The fox responded like quicksilver and he could feel it grinning maliciously at him as it said he may be the only Uchiha it likes; lies, of course, and Sasuke knows it better than anyone. It hates him and all things Uchiha.

Itachi was in front of him now and Sasuke screamed in rage, red lightning shrieking in his clawed hand. Itachi was moving his hands and he was probably going to dodge-

Itachi suddenly stopped and spread his arms in a welcoming gesture, a faint smile on his lips. Sasuke's hand struck half a second later, tearing through his brother's chest in a spray of hot blood and shattered bone as if it were mere tissue paper.

The world slid to a shrieking halt and everything, even the screams of his late-arriving friends and the curses of Itachi's sword-wielding partner, faded into the background.

"W-Why?" he managed.

_Why did you let me do that?_

_Why did you kill them and spare me?_

_Why?_

Itachi did not answer, his lips curved in a bloody smile, and, instead, shakily reached forward, pressing his fingers to the younger boy's forehead.

Sasuke's wail of anguish melted into a roar and the world _burned_.

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AN: Most depressing drabble of the lot. If it came down to it and Sasuke was the Kyuubi host, methinks Itachi would not be able to go through with turning him over to Akatsuki. Although, if Sasuke was the host, Itachi would have even more reason to kill off the clan.


	6. Tail Six: Shikamaru

_**Alternate Hosting**_

**By TwinEnigma**

_Warnings:_ AU

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**Tail Six:**

Shikamaru sighed. Naruto and the new Hokage-potential were trading insults over the table while Jiraiya watched in amusement and Shizune, the poor woman's apprentice, looked on in abject horror.

This was certainly a troublesome mission, he decided. And if it hadn't been for an exceedingly troublesome bijuu sealed in _his_ stomach and the missing-nin interested in using it for some kind of souped-up chakra battery, Shikamaru would not have needed to be sitting in this bar, watching two troublesome loudmouths make fools of themselves.

Why was he here again?

Jiraiya laughed loudly as Tsunade pitched Naruto through the window and stomped out into the street after him.

Oh, right.

Jiraiya was a master of seals and one of the strongest, most experienced ninja alive. If anyone could give Shikamaru insight into the Kyuubi's seal and keep those creepy Akatsuki people from kidnapping him, it was certainly Jiraiya. The man's sheer mastery of the subject was astounding and more than made up for his less than amusing personal quirks and proclivities.

Naruto charged at Tsunade and Shikamaru sighed, letting his head drop to the table. Really, it'd be so much easier if Tsunade just accepted the inevitable and came back with them. It wasn't like Naruto was going to give up just because he was outmatched.

"This is so troublesome," Shikamaru said and closed his eyes to take a nap. "Wake me up when Naruto wins."

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AN: Accept it, Tsunade, you're Hokage. Stop being so troublesome. This is probably the funniest of the drabbles.


	7. Tail Seven: Ino

_**Alternate Hosting**_

**By TwinEnigma**

_Warnings:_ AU

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**Tail Seven:**

Ino was a special girl and she'd known it for as long as she could remember. It wasn't just the symmetrical markings like a fox's whiskers on her face, nor that nagging occasional temptation to go snapping after birds – and the latter wasn't too unusual, when she considered some of her classmates. It also wasn't the fact that she'd come from greatest clan of mind-specialists in the whole of Fire Country.

It was because she was the living prison of the Kyuubi.

Unfortunately, this also meant her family's very useful technique for the temporary control of another's body was Just Not an Option, with capital letters to emphasize the absolute seriousness of how much it was not an option.

Ino understood, of course. She liked her body just fine, thank you very much, and her disagreeable, noisy mental shut-in would totally make a wreck of it.

Kyuubi had always been very keen making sure Ino knew exactly what it would do if she so much as stepped out even for a moment. And while the Yondaime Hokage's seal kept the Kyuubi inside of her body, there was no telling what would happen if her spirit wasn't there to keep it shoved in its little corner where it belonged.

Although, from what she'd gathered from both Jiraiya and the Sandaime, it wasn't supposed to be able to talk to her at all. Her father supposed that it might be because Yamanaka minds were more open than others and it was tied to her chakra system. They'd trained hard so she could master ways to shut the damn thing out, too, but there were times it didn't work and she just wanted it to shut up and go away.

Shikamaru was as close to a twin as she could have and he didn't get it. He'd never begrudge her though – he knew, better than anyone, that if the Kyuubi had been a day earlier, he might have been the one with the seal, not her. Chouji didn't get it either, but he seemed to know when she was having bad days and went out of his way to try and help take the edge off.

Sakura understood a little – she had a voice in her head – but it wasn't the same. Her voice was all bottled up emotions and suppressed impulses. It was a voice, but it was still Sakura and it didn't really hamper her as a ninja. Sakura's teammates may have begged to differ, but they only ever got a thrashing at the other Sakura's encouragement when they'd truly deserved it, which was more often than not.

Gaara understood implicitly. Oh, he was bloodthirsty and ten kinds of screwed in the head, but he knew exactly what Ino was talking about when she told him the Kyuubi talked to her. After she'd beat some sense into him during the invasion (a knee to the balls would wake up any man, induced slumber or no), she bawled and blabbered out her secret, telling him all about how hard it was to keep standing up to that thing and telling it to shove off, and he'd _understood_. They were connected – call it destiny, red string of fate or whatever – and it was a connection neither of them really wanted to lose.

Of course, that brought her to the present and the decidedly awkward situation that was currently unfolding in the Akimichi House of BBQ.

On one side of the table, Gaara's siblings were sitting with twin expressions that warred between disbelief and absolute terror. On the other, Ino's parents were seated, looking torn between resignation and desperate concern for her well-being. Next to her, Gaara looked amused and simultaneously very nervous as he fiddled with his chopsticks.

"Ino-chan!"

It was Sakura, out of breath and flustered like she'd just run halfway across the village without stopping. Ino had never been more relieved to see the girl in her entire life.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"S-Sasuke has been kidnapped by Orochimaru!" Sakura managed, gulping down giant breaths of air. "Shikamaru's scrambling a team to rescue him and he won't let me-" Sakura paused, staring at the table's occupants and then at her friend. "...Ino, are you on a _date_?"

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AN: Priorities, Sakura, priorities. Poor Temari, poor Kankuro, and poor Inoichi - Gaara and Ino are going to give them white hairs.


	8. Tail Eight: Hinata

_**Alternate Hosting**_

**By TwinEnigma**

_Warnings:_ AU

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**T****ail Eight:**

Hinata was determined to prove she wasn't a dud. She was meek, she was kind, and definitely very girly, but she wasn't going to give up just because it was harder for her sometimes. That was her ninja way.

Even when Neji was trying to kill her in the exams, she had resolved not to give up. Instead, she'd shown him she could defy her fate when she reached out and grabbed the fox's power, bending it to her will. She was weak and fated to lose, unable to ever use the power locked within her (because no one could control that; it'd be insane to try) and Neji knew it as well as she did, but she had something he didn't and that was _hope_.

He'd won, of course, but it was an empty victory: she'd made it clear she was allowing him to win. Her determination and the fox's chakra put him on the defensive and she'd screamed out her frustrations at him, because she knew she was weak and a soft little girl. All that, she'd sworn, was going to change and she'd change Hyuuga with it. Then, she'd deliberately missed hitting him with her last punch and told him she forfeited the match, not because it was fate, but because she chose to do so.

Neji knew who really won and so did the instructors.

He didn't know, couldn't know, that he'd come so close to dying. The Kyuubi was not as forgiving or compassionate as Hinata and its chakra did not like to be contained. It warped and twisted, trying to heighten every bad emotion in her body to break her will down. The fox wanted out and it would have crushed Neji like an ant if she had not pulled it back in time.

Hinata, if nothing else, prided herself on knowing her limitations.

Currently, those limitations were being put to the test as she, Rock Lee and Naruto tried to avoid the bone-spikes of Orochimaru's last disciple. Undoubtedly, behind them, their teammates were suffering and injured, but all they had to do was make it past this one and to Sasuke before he hit the border. They shared a look with an unspoken message: whoever gets the first opportunity will go, while the others stay.

What was she even _doing_ here?

Hinata wasn't supposed to be on this mission. She'd snuck out, followed at a safe distance – well, at least until Neji spotted her – and here she was.

Naruto, her long-time idol, flung himself bodily back into the fray and she knew her purpose again.

Sasuke was like she was before his clan was killed: he'd been shy, quiet and desperate to prove himself. Hinata knew very well what terrible things could turn someone like that into. She'd very nearly done something unforgivable during the exams because she wanted to prove her power and get even. What had been done to Sasuke was far worse than what had been done to her and she knew that nothing Naruto could say, no matter how kind and well-intentioned it was, could hope to sway Sasuke from his path. Naruto just didn't have any understanding of what it was like being in the shoes of someone that a member of their own family was trying to kill and who had been regarded as an inferior all their life.

Naruto would die if he fought Sasuke. He had all the enthusiasm and stamina in the world, but many of his team's techniques were assassination techniques and Naruto would never use them on Sasuke. On the other hand, Sasuke was like a cornered animal, willing to kill to get away, and he didn't care who he had to go through. If they had chained him up, she'd no doubts that he'd have chewed his own arm off to escape.

But if he killed Naruto... well, she didn't know what she'd do. Naruto was her inspiration. He'd given her the courage to be strong, even if he didn't know it yet, and she couldn't bear the thought of anything happening to him.

Hinata muttered a brief apology and took off after Sasuke at the first opportunity that presented itself. He'd written her off as weak and insignificant too, but she was going to remind him that people can change – she did it and he can do it to, without Orochimaru. She'd never given up and she wasn't about to let him give up either. That was her ninja way.

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AN: I think Hinata understands Sasuke a bit more than Naruto does even in canon, too, thanks to Cloud's, Hiashi's and Neji's respective dickery.


	9. Tail Nine: Naruto

_**Alternate Hosting**_

**By TwinEnigma**

_Warnings:_ none for this chapter

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**Tail Nine:**

Kyuubi laughed, the sound reverberating off the cavernous walls of his prison. Eight balls of pale, ghostly fire circled around him, flickering images of other worlds on their surface.

Naruto stared, only his eyes showing his unease and horror.

"All of these are what could have been," the Kyuubi said, caressing one of the images affectionately. "Your beloved teammates, your precious classmates... they all would have succumbed to me in the end, just as you will."

Naruto clenched his hands into fists, his knuckles turning white. "I will not."

"We shall see," the Kyuubi smiled.

Naruto woke, the memory of his friends and their faces twisted by the Kyuubi's chakra still lingering in his eyes.

"I will not give in," he vowed, "Ever."

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AN: Kyuubi was showing him glimpses of those other universes - probably the worst bits, too - in order to mess with Naruto.


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